Principal’s heart is in AHA jump rope event

Wednesday

Jan 23, 2013 at 12:08 PMJan 23, 2013 at 12:13 PM

Luke Smucker

Students at Washington Grade School are being asked to participate in a fundraising event for the American Heart Association, an organization their principal is passionate about.In describing the upcoming “Jump Rope for Heart Event,” to students during an assembly Tuesday, Principal Josh DeLong put a personal face on those helped by the AHA by introducing his niece, Shelby DeLong of Dwight, who has undergone several heart surgeries although she’s just 2 years old. Shelby’s father Jeremy DeLong is principal DeLong’s brother.“Two weeks before Shelby was born, the doctors found out there was a problem with her heart, but they couldn’t really diagnose it until she was born,” said Jeremy DeLong. “When she was born, they found out there were holes in her heart and at 6 months old, they had to do surgery and we had to wait again until she was 2 years old to complete the second surgery which is called a fontan procedure. She now has a three-chamber heart instead of four, like most people.”Jeremy said there are no words for the feelings he went through for his daughter, except that it is something he wouldn’t wish upon anyone else. Through it all however, he said the two of them have been made stronger and doctors have forecast she won’t need any more surgeries anytime soon.“It’s a really good thing for the school to be doing this,” said Jeremy DeLong. “I think everybody should be aware of the things that can happen and the American Heart Association has a really great thing going with the Jump Rope for Heart program.”Also present at the assembly was Youth Marketing Director for the Midwest affiliate of the American Heart Association Amy McKuhen, who talked with the students about what they could do to help raise money and participate in the event, scheduled for Feb. 7 and 8.Although the program has continued its annual fundraising events for 34 years, Washington School has not held a Jump Rope For Heart event in a few years. DeLong said the idea of holding this event as a first-year principal and McKuhen as a first-year Midwest affiliate was something he and McKuhen had come up with prior to the beginning of the 2012 school year.“We set this up and I was interested from the get-go knowing what my niece has gone through,” the principal said. “We checked our student records and as far as we know, none of our students have any heart conditions. So we are hoping that having someone they are familiar with and making the connection with me, that they say, ‘this is real, this can happen.’ It’s great to get that awareness out there and just simple things about a diet and exercise can have a huge influence on the health of your heart.”The American heart Association says around 80 percent of heart attacks are preventable. Every day around 2, 500 people have a heart attack and 2,100 people have a stroke. McKuhen said only about half of them survive. “We’ve got to get people to take better care of themselves,” said McKuhen. “My own kids remember being involved in a Jump Rope for Heart event, but it’s evolved from there. It used to be that kids would jump so many times and sponsors would sponsor how many times the kids pledged to jump. Now, we just want the kids to be jumping and having fun. Some schools will also hold other activities, it’s not just a jump rope event, they might have an obstacle course or pogo sticks, it could even be hula hooping, but it’s all about being active and having fun.”McKuhen said the reason she wanted to reach out to Pontiac was due to some of the people she knows in the community and their positive feedback to her about how giving the community is. Josh DeLong said the school has been giving the kids heart facts with their daily announcements for the past two weeks and will continue to do that through Feb. 8. He said their Jump Rope for Heart event will feature both single jump roping and doubles. If it goes well, he said he definitely could see this event being held annually.“It’s about getting that information out in any avenue we can and kids starting at this age,” said McKuhen. “We want them to start when they are at a good place in their lives and just get better through positive habits they can keep as they grow older.”